Lake level drops dangerously low

Jace Radke

Thursday, April 11, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

A jarring crunch sent Joe Mantico and his three friends sprawling Sunday as their 35-foot speedboat unexpectedly struck underwater rocks in the middle of Lake Mead.

"You don't really expect to hit anything out in the middle of the lake," said Mantico, who suffered a contusion to his knee in the accident near Callville Bay. Another boater sustained a head wound in the crash, but is expected to fully recover from the injury. "If we'd have been closer to shore we would have been keeping a better lookout."

Sunday's accident could be one of many this season as boaters find that the geography of Lake Mead is changing, recreation officials say.

Submerged reefs and rocks are slowly surfacing as the lake's water level continues to drop from lack of precipitation in the mountains that feed the Colorado River.

The water level at the lake has dropped more than 20 feet compared with last year at this time, creating unexpected shallows from one end of the reservoir to the other, said Kay Rohde, chief of interpretation for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

"There aren't enough buoys in the world to mark all the reefs and rocks that are emerging at the lake," Rohde said. "We're trying to mark these new outcrops in the main channels, but it's changing every day."

Last week Air Ranger Bruce Lenon and recreation area Superintendent Bill Dickinson took a park service plane up to get an overview of the 250 square miles of water that make up Lake Mead.

Beginning on Tuesday, the recreation area will post a list on its website of trouble spots that have been located on the lake. The site can be accessed at www.nps.gov/lame.

But the responsibility of avoiding accidents will mainly fall to boaters, Rohde said.

"We're asking that boaters slow down and stay alert," Rohde said. "We do have some rangers patrolling the area on the lake and in the air, but it's a big area and we're already being stretched thin by the need to move some of our personnel to help with security at Hoover Dam."

Bob Walsh, chief of external affairs with the Lower Colorado River Region of the Bureau of Reclamation, said that the surface level of the lake is not likely to rise anytime soon.

"We're projecting this to continue at least through this year," Walsh said. "The runoff from the upper Colorado River Basin has been well below average over the past few years.

"We're just not getting the snowpacks and precipitation up there."

Water level is measured by determining how many feet above sea level the lake's surface is. The actual depth of the lake is probably about 500 feet, Walsh said.

The lake is currently about 1,170 feet above sea level, down from 1,176 feet above sea level about two months ago.

"What we basically have is a garden hose running into the lake and a firehouse running out," Walsh said.

Despite less water flowing in, the reservoir continues to meet municipal and agricultural water needs in Nevada, Arizona and California, causing the lake's surface to drop.

This is not the first time in the 66-year history of the reservoir that low water levels have plagued the lake. From 1990 to 1996 water levels were at or below current levels, park service officials said.

Lake Mead is typically at its highest yearly elevation in the late fall and early spring, and is at its lowest levels in the summer.

The lower water level has also caused problems at the recreation area's boat launches. Portions of the ramps that were below water for years are now exposed and in disrepair.

"We repaved the ramps recently, but we could only go down to the water level," Rohde said. "Now we have potholes and drops."

The ramps pose a serious problem as the area prepares for its busiest season, between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

"People have to drive further down the ramps, and there is not as big an expanse of deep water to launch boats in," Rohde said. "We're seeing backups at Cottonwood Cove and Katherine Landing, and it's not even summer yet."

Paul Radzwillowicz, who has been boating at Lake Mead for the last 10 years said he was considering doing his boating at Lake Mojave because of the dropping water level.

"During the past week my boat has suffered about $400 in damage just from trying to load and unload it on the uneven ground on the ramps," Radzwillowicz said. "They can't even make it safe for me to launch my boat, because the water level is dropping so fast."

archive